


Jar of Hearts

by ColeTReed



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2013-11-11
Packaged: 2018-01-01 04:22:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1040291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColeTReed/pseuds/ColeTReed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray feels as though there is no point in life anymore, wasting away in his tiny New York Apartment, when a strange man, The Director of Life, pops in, offering him a chance to live the life he always wanted.  All he has to do?  Improve the lives of 100 people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jar of Hearts

Ray Narvaez Jr was a man that most people would consider to be a happy person.  He smiled all the time, cracked jokes and was generally a great guy to be around.  On the inside though?  He was a mess. 

Opening the door to his small New York apartment, he throws his school bag onto the floor, his keys messily laid on a nearby desk.  The apartment is lackluster, only a few odd pieces of required furniture, and a single mattress, the sheets askew, not even properly straightened.  Otherwise, it was clean though, without a trace of any sort of personality or life in it whatsoever. 

Ray plops down on the aforementioned mattress, staring at the ceiling and counting the tiles again for the thirteenth time that month.

 _What are you doing with your life Ray?_ He thought cryptically, analyzing his life choices.  He was in college.  A good start.  In business, a degree that would be beneficial in the long run.  Another smart decision.  Yet he was unhappy and frustrated.  He did well in school, and was definitely on the road to a successful career, but it didn’t make him happy.

Turning his face to his laptop, it is the only light source in the entire apartment, he saw his lifeline, YouTube, on screen, waiting for another long night when he didn’t have homework.   THAT was what he wanted, a life online or in video production or filmmaking, like the guys at Achievement Hunter.  THEY were living the life, and he was jealous that he lacked the courage to go for his dreams.  It was too dangerous though, too risky.  His parents hadn’t sacrificed years of saving money so he could blow it on some shitty degree.

“Wow, what a sad and pathetic man…” a loud, obnoxious and oddly Irish accent proclaimed.  Ray opened his eyes, taking in the man now staring him down.  It must be a testament to his state of mind to not react negatively to this person invading his personal space, though perhaps it was the fact that he was floating that made Ray believe he was dreaming. 

He closed his eyes, half expected to return to sleepy time.

“Uh, hello?  That’s quite rude you know!” the voice says again, poking him in the cheeks. 

Ray opens his eyes.  “Aw shit, this is a thing isn’t it?” he says, realizing that someone was actually in his house, probably there to rob him.  He lets out a deep sigh.  “Money’s on the desk, top right drawer, just take it and leave please.  I would avoid killing me, I scream very loudly, and these walls are paper thin.” He says, rolling back onto the mattress, curling into the comforter.

He hears the man let out a tsk or two.  “Could you please pay attention to me, you have a glorified demigod in your presence, and you’re blowing your chance here.  Plus, I never get to work with the humans, I want this to be a good one!” he says, pushing Ray out of the bed, and kicking him a few times.

“OK, I’M UP, WHAT DO YOU WANT?!” he screams, wanting this home invasion to come to an end.

“Oh dear, I’ve not introduced myself.” He says, now bowing before Ray.  “My name is Carter Tei, and I am the Director of Life.”

Ray’s not sure what to make of this man.  He was tall, skinny and had the body frame of a fancy French model.  The man had long golden blonde hair with bangs sticking into his eyes, sparkling blue eyes and wearing a pair of red framed glasses.  He had on some sort of golden outfit too, some sort of hipster librairan, like a hoodie t-shirt or some shit.  He was bright to look at, and it hurt Ray’s eyes.

“I am here to act as an intermediary.  My goal here is to improve your life and give you the kind of life you want to live.” He says, taking Ray by the hand.  “Isn’t this exciting?”

Ray rolls back into bed, covering his face with a pillow.  “I’m not interested in your screwball religion, I’m not giving you any money, and I’m not going to serve the dark lord xenith or whatever shit you’re smoking.  Please leave.”

Carter lets out a deep sigh.  “You humans are so boring; I don’t know what Cole sees in your lot.  Anyway though, I suppose I’ll just leave it anyway, it’s taking up space in my universe.”

Carter puts his hand out, palm upwards, and a small jar about the size of a medicine bottle appears before him, floating above his hand gently.  It looked like a crystalline figure, the top of it sealed tightly with a star-shaped lid.

“This is the jar of life.  Every time you improve the life of a fellow human being, a single star shall be born inside this jar.  Once you obtain one hundred stars, I shall return.  When I return, I will deliver unto you the life you wish most for, using the accumulated happiness you generated as the balancing factor.” He says, putting the jar down on the desk next to Ray’s laptop.

“I suggest you hurry.  It’s harder than you think, and you’ve already quite wasted enough of your life I would say.”Carter says, finishing his speech and slowly evaporating from the air.

Ray misses all of it, him already dozing off to sleep, trying not to think of his guest.          

——————-

During the first few weeks, Ray didn’t even think of the bottle.  He’d stuck it in a drawer after his third failed time attempting to throw it away.  He wasn’t sure what that Carter was playing at, but he very well must have been stalking him to some degree.

Forgetting about it, Ray continues his usual routine.  School, lunch, afternoon school, dinner and sleep.  He repeated the pattern every day for two weeks, until the fateful day his first star was born.

There was a phone call coming from his cell phone, it vibrating roughly on his desk.  Reluctantly leaving his mattress, he picks it up and answers it, realizing it’s his very good friend from college, Ali.  Ali was a strange one to Ray.  Despite being in the same business school as him, he was a colorful individual.  She wore bright pink long hair, some really fluffy punk rock outfit of the day, and had a ton of piercings.  Not exactly marketable in a business sense.  Still, she was a great girl, and Ray really enjoyed her company.

“Hey, what’s up?” he says groggily, suppressing the urge to yawn rudely in her ear.

“RAY, THANK GOD I GOT YOU, YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!!!” she says, slightly hysterical. 

Ray’s eyes open widly, and he reaches for his glasses, readying himself to leave at a moment’s notice.  “Ali, what’s wrong, are you ok?” he says. 

Ali sniffs a bit, trying to regain her compsure.  “Ray, my computer completely crashed on me, and I lost Dr. Carr’s report, and it’s due tomorrow, and I don’t know what to do!” she says, now letting the stress and exhaustion overtake her words.

Ray cringes.  Dr. Carr accepted no late homework for any reason, and the report was due tomorrow, easily worth a fraction of their entire grade.  “Ali, I’ll be over in just a few minutes, calm down, and don’t worry.”

She breathes deeply, sighing.  “Thank you Ray, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Unbeknownst to Ray, a small star is quickly born in his tiny little bottle.

 ———————

Ray was pretty certain that Carter had to be a joker of some sort, but apparently nobody in the area schools knew of him, and all google/facebook/twitter searches came up completely empty.  It was like the man didn’t exist. 

It was this mystery that frustrated Ray, him teasing the bottle through his fingers one day during a routine clean up, and noticing there were little bitty balls of light in it.  Not many, just four or five.  What was more disturbing was the fact that Ray could not open the top of the bottle.  It was impossible to remove the seal, and even attempting to break the bottle met with no success. 

“So…  Was that…  Really….?” He says to himself, his brain puzzled.  Remembering back to what Carter had said, apparently filling up this little bottle with one hundred stars would give him the life he wanted through some magical mumbo-jumbo? 

The concept absorbed into Ray’s brain, him getting a little excited.   Though…  How would he prove this?

An idea strikes him.  Pulling out an emergency first aid kit from his bathroom, Ray finds a roll of twine, and quickly fashions a makeshift necklace, using the bottle as a pendant.  He counted the balls this time, there only being five of them.  Rushing outside, he excitedly runs out of his apartment and into the streets.

 ——————-

It didn’t take long for Ray to find someone in “need”, there were always mopey kids around like him, and they were the perfect target practice. 

Seeing one slouching against a fencepost, Ray pats the college guy on the back.  “Man, I love that shirt, looks cool!” he mutters, commenting on the man’s graphic t-shirt.  He sees the man look up, giving him a quizzical look and moving on, staring at Ray like he’s crazy.

Once out of sight, Ray pulls out the bottle, and looks at it.  Still just five? 

Ray ponders for a bit, wondering if it hadn’t been enough.   Pausing for a moment, a short girl bumps into him, Ray not realizing he was blocking street traffic.  She immediately blushes, and utters a few apologies.  Ray recognizes her, he shared a few classes with her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t…  Well, I suppose….  Umm….” She says, obviously a little shy.

Ray smiles, realizing another opportunity was in front of him.  “Hey, my bad.  Didn’t realize what I was doing, lost in my own little world a bit..” he says, pausing for a second, her now looking at her feet.

Ray had always thought she was a pretty girl, she just didn’t do much with the rest of the business department, always doing projects by herself or some shit.  She had long black hair, down to her shoulders, her always wearing a very well fitted hoodie and jeans.  What was her name?  Jennifer?

“Hey, I think we have accounting together!” Ray says, now walking alongside her, she still starting at her feet.  She nods.  “Yeah, we have Economics together too..” she says sheepishly, blushing a bit. 

Ray slaps his head, he’d forgotten that too.  “Oh yeah!  You sit in the back!” he says, smiling.

_How on earth am I going to make her life better?_

Ray was thinking furiously, wondering  what exactly would make her life improved?  Hell, how would he be able to do it with a hundred people?

“Um…  Ray?” he hears her say, him turning to her.  “If you’re not doing anything…  Do you want to work on the economics paper together?  It’s kind of hard, and I know you’re smart and stuff…  So… Um…” she asks, pausing frequently.

Ray smiled.  “PERFECT!” he screams a bit, shocking her, not realizing he hadn’t kept that thought in his head.

“err, I mean, that would be awesome.  Wanna meet tonight in the library?  I’ll bring a few people too, we can knock this bad boy out fast.” He says.  Ray figured the girl must be stressed, so removing stress would be like improving a life, right?

She smiled giddily.  “YES.  Err, I mean yes, please bring your friends!” she says, Ray noticing her demeanor improving greatly.

As the two of them get closer to her apartment, they depart, Ray checking the bottle again.  Six stars. 

This was going to happen!

 —————————-

Six months later, Ray had accumulated about 60 stars, if he was counting properly.  It was not easy, and some months were harder than others.  People were really fucking cheery around Christmas, so he didn’t get to do too much then, losing a lot of progress.  Though now it was finally Summer Break, and he was going to get into the final stretch.

Ray had turned this into a project.  It was a goal.  He had quotas, spreadsheets, data analysis, the most frequently successful “life improvement” strategies.  Combined with his homework, it was a lot, but worth it if the end goal would be as he’d expected. 

He knew exactly what he wanted too.  He’d give up his shitty life and be an internet celebrity, be a brand new Achievement Hunter and be one of those guys at Rooster Teeth.  He’d done a lot of research, and they seemed to be the most genuinely happy, their lives being a fucking paradise if the podcast and twitter commentary was to be believe.  He couldn’t wait, it was so close he could taste it, just forty lives away.

His phone buzzes in his pocket, and he picks it up.  It’s Ali, which is strange because he thought she went home for the summer. 

“Yo, what’s up?” he says, putting on his cheery demeanor.  People reacted better when he smiled or told jokes, it usually was a guaranteed star if they got to talk about something in each other’s life.  Unless it was sad, in which case Ray would put on the waterworks or just be there to hug them. He’d been able to pretty successfully realize how to interact with people for the best profit.

“RAYYYYY, can you come over?  Me, Jennifer and Courtney are packing up for our trip, and we really need a Sexy Puerta Rican to join us.” She says, putting on a child-like mannerism.

Ray chuckles.  “I don’t think I’d fit, or your daddy would approve.”

Ali plants a raspberry into the phone, Ray almost feeling the spit in his ear.  “Daddy says you can come over too, I already called him.  It’s just for the weekend getaway, and you can sleep on the couch.  I’m sure you can manage that and not get us pregnant.”

Ray quickly begins internally analyzing the situation.   _How do I respond to this?  Well, she’s obviously kidding, but if I joke back with her on the pregnancy, would that come off as creepy?  A getaway like this is a great opportunity to get some more stars, and starting it off on the wrong foot might ruin the whole thing.  Best play it sale._

Ray returns from the world of his internal monologue, “Well, if daddy says it’s ok, then I suppose I would love to join you three for a weekend getaway.  Thank you very much for the invitation.” He says, a more formal tone towards the end.

The two exchange a  bit of information, and quickly get off the phone, Ray snagging one of his bags and throwing a few things inside it. 

_Would getting them roses be overkill?  Yeah..  Yeah it would._

 ———————

The Fall semester of school came and went, it now clear into winter break.  Ray’s accumulated stars were about to eighty now, though he hadn’t counted in a while.  His data and research into the project had been lackluster, him frustrated with the usual Holiday cheeriness.  There’s no way to impvove someone’s life when their life is currently a mess of commercialism and fancy tidings.  Not that he’d been doing much of that lately anyway. 

Bah humbug. 

Ray and Courtney were out in a small café.  After the summertime adventure, the two of them had decided to start dating. 

Courtney was about the same age as Ray, with long blonde hair, a cool nose piercing, and strong features that would stand out in a crowd.

Courtney loved Ray to death, saying he was such a cheery and happy person to be around, and he brought so much light into the people he interacted with.  Ray had initially agreed to be Courtney’s boyfriend as a way to exploit the fact that he hadn’t improved her life yet, and it seemed like a good opportunity.  However, he hadn’t expected to actually fall in love with the girl, a little guilt welling in his heart about the entire situation.  Suddenly, he felt very guilty about pretty much everything.  Who thought like him?  Who would analyze interactions with other people, come up with strategies about how to best exploit them?  Even with such a big prize on the line, he realized what a monster he’d become.  He wasn’t even himself anymore.  “Ray” didn’t exist, his soul was just an easily interchangeable mask.      

“Ray, you seem so distant tonight, what are you thinking about?” she asks, her voice laced with concern. 

Ray smiles quickly, cursing himself for lowering his date-night mask.  Courtney could always tell if he ever let up even for a minute.  “I’m fine babe, just thinking about stuff.” He says, patting her on the hands.

She frowns.  “You’ve got that face on again.”

Ray gives her a puzzled look, hoping to dissuade the conversation.  “I know you pretty well now Ray Narvaez, well enough to know when you’re faking that cocky attitude.  Tell me what’s wrong.” She says, a command towards the end.

Ray lets out a sigh.  “It’s complicated.”

Courtney gives him a soft look.  “I’m here for you, you know that right?  You can tell me anything, I love you, and I want to know about everything in your life.” She says, touching his face gently.  “You make so many people happy Ray, it hurts us when we know that you’re not happy.” she says.

Ray let his barrier down a bit.  Maybe…  Maybe she’d understand.  “Do you…  Do you ever wish you’d done things differently?  Like…  Had a different life?  Like…  I dunno, if you had a chance to do everything over again, you’d either go a different direction or kill yourself?”

Courtney gives him a puzzled expression, her eyes full of disbelief.  “Ray?”

Ray gets up, shaking his head.  “Nothing, don’t..  Don’t worry about it.”

Ray walks out of the café, much to Courtney’s protest.

 —————-

99 stars.  He’d counted timelessly.  One life left to improve. 

Back in his tiny and soulless apartment, Ray was fingering the bottle through his fingertips, knowing it would happen soon.  Though, he wasn’t sure what to think about it. 

He and Courtney had still continued dating, her off somewhere with her mom on Spring break.  She..  She was the only one that he hadn’t improved, still to this day.  It haunted him.  Why…  What… 

Questions were swirling through his head, him now getting a headache.  He wanted this over.  He wanted his new life.  Now. 

He feels his pants buzz, and he pulls out his phone.  It’s Courtney, she must have made it home safely.  “Hey girl, what’s up?” he says, answering.

He hears Courtney breathing heavily on the other line.  “Ray…  I…  I need you…” she says, controlling her breath.

Ray’s eyes widen.  “Courtney, what’s wrong?” he asks, immediately concerned. 

He hears her inhale deeply.  “Ray, it’s my mom…  We were driving through the scenic route on the way up to Maine, and some lunatic driver slammed into the passenger side door.  She…  She…  She’s not going to make it, I can’t get my dad, and I’m really scared Ray….” She says, still trying to keep her composure.

Without thinking, Ray puts on the bottle around his neck, grabbing his keys and heading out the door.  There’s no thinking involved, he just moved.  “Where are you?”

____________-

Ray arrived at the hospital about a few hours after Courtney had called him.  It was a long drive, and traffic was terrible.  Opening the doors to the intensive care unit waiting room, Courtney gets up and embraces him tightly. 

“How’s your mom?” he asks immediately.

She’s now crying into his shoulder, her guard let down now.  “I don’t know Ray, they won’t let me see her, the doctors won’t talk to me, and I can’t…” she stops herself, putting her head into his shoulder.  Ray pats her on the head, rubbing her shoulders.  “It’s fine.  Everything will be fine.” He says, with little confidence in his own words.  He stares directly into her head.  “I’m here for you.  You just…  You just tell me what you need.  I’m not going anywhere.”

He watches as Courtney looks up, staring him directly in the eyes.  “You mean it?”

Ray nods.  “Yeah, I do.”

As a hundredth star is born, the world around Ray turns black and white, time stopping immediately.  Ray has still retained his color, and seems to be able to move.

The man named Carter is clapping slowly.  “Congratulations!  You finally did it!  That last performance was truly splendid.” He says in his obnoxious voice.

Ray lets go of the immobile Courtney, and turns to the very bright and golden man before him.  “Where am I?” Ray asks, panic setting in .

Carter rushes to Ray’s side, patting him on the back.  “Why, we’re in limbo of course, getting ready for you lovely new life!  I’m sure you have it all picked out, right?  You’ll forgive me, I was a tad nosy in your affairs, but watching you humans work is actually quite entertaining, I will have to compliment Cole on his taste in hobbies” he says, now floating into the air a bit, laying his head down on Ray’s skull.

“Soooooo, you ready to go?  It won’t take long, I’ll just need to get some mad gunman to come through and shoot you real quick, you’ll die in this life, and I’ll throw your lifeforce in your body and life you’ve accumulated into another world, and you’ll get to be all happily ever after.” He says, now clapping again.

Ray’s face turns cold.  “What’d you say?”

Carter gets a puzzled look.  “Oh, I forgot to mention that?  Oh, don’t’ worry, it doesn’t hurt when you die, it’s more like a puppet version of you dying, I swear there is no pain, we just have to eject you from the world to keep everything in balance.  Besides, with the choices you’ve made in this world, it would be impossible for you to obtain any sort of life of value, wouldn’t you agree?  I need to get you into another world ASAP and onto your own career path of fame and fortune!”

Ray’s face feels pale, and he touches the now glowing bottle around his neck.  “So…  So I…  I won’t see anyone here ever again?”

Carter nods.  “Yeeeeep, no more of these boring people, no more of this boring life, and you’ll have the pleasure of real company and real people.” He says smiling giddily.  “Why, I can see it now.  “Ray Man!”  he says, making exaggerated hand motions.  “Swooner of women, ace gamer and love of the entire world.  It will be great!” the man says.

Ray smiles, thinking about it himself.  It was REAL!  It was HAPPENING!  Though…  He’s not happy.  Instead he feels hollow.

Ray turns and stares at the immobile and frozen Courtney.  Her face was almost…  Peaceful.  She’d obviously been the one to give Ray his last star.  But how…  How had he improved her life?  He didn’t do anything!

He feels Carter poke his face.  “Hello, earth to human, would you please hurry up and get back into place, I’d like to get this going.”

Ray doesn’t move, he just…  He just looks at her face.   _Why..  Why do you look so happy?_

Ray thinks about what he’d said.  

"I won’t leave."

Then it hit him.

“Actually…  I have…  A different idea now, if you don’t mind.” Ray says, getting back into position.

 ———————

Courtney wasn’t sure if Ray would have come or not.  Despite the fact that she’d been dating him for the better part of a year now, she felt like…  Like she didn’t know him.  She knew he was probably just really shy, hiding himself out of some fear that she’d reject him, but tonight, she’d seen the real him. 

He came at a moment’s notice.  He came to her, embraced her, and told her everything was going to be all right.  Courtney was strong and independent, but when faced with the possibility of losing her mother?  She wanted someone there, someone to tell her everything was going to be ok.

Ray came for her.  He sat there with her for nearly two whole days by the time Courtney got hold of her father, and him arriving.  He never left her side, muttering nervously about random things, likely to keep her mind off her mother.  She appreciated it. 

By the time her mother was out of surgery, the doctors finally came and gave her an update.  What they had originally considered a fatal accident had turned into some thirteen odd hour surgery that proved it was really just an accumulation of bad injuries that made it look far worse than the original reports and statements had said.  Although the EMTs still claim she shouldn’t have lived.

They said it would have taken a miracle to survive that. 

“Courtney?” she hears Ray say.  She opens her eyes, her having been resting on his shoulder.

“Yeah Ray?” she says, turning to look at him.

“Would you still love me if I dropped out of school and tried doing something else?  Business sucks ass, and I’m sick of it.” He says, blushing a little bit.

Courtney was puzzled.  He’d never sworn like that before, and she’d never-  Wait…  Was that?  Was that the real Ray poking out?

“And what, pray tell, would you want to do with your life?” she asks, snuggling back into his shoulder. 

He lets out a deep sigh.  “YouTube.”

She pops her eyes open and stares at him a bit.  “Huh?”

He’s clearly embarrassed now.  “This is stupid, but I want to… I dunno…  Do something in production.  Make a video series, get on camera, do SOMETHING fun with my life instead of living behind a desk.  I guess..  I guess I just wanted an easy out of life, taking the safe road constantly, but that’s boring and I don’t like it, and I..  Well, I want the person I love most in the world to be on board with it” He says.  Thinking back, she realizes this must have been what he was talking about so long ago.

Wait..  Did he just say….?

Courtney smiles.  “Well…  If you took it seriously, put your whole heart into it, could make money off it responsibly, and if that’s what it takes to let the real Ray come out, I’m good with it.  I mean..  You only….  PFFFFt”

She chuckles, laughing at something.

Ray looks up at her, curious.  “What’s so funny?” he asks.

Courtney is absolutely losing it at this point.  “YOLO!”

Ray groans loudly.  Who on earth would ever think that kind of phrase would ever do anyone any good?

——-

Carter was on the roof of the hospital, fairly disappointed in the outcome. 

“Can’t always predict them, huh Cole?” Carter says, pulling the bottle out of his pocket.  It was empty now.  All of the life gone into that one girl’s mother, what a waste of life.  That man gave up everything to be with that woman for who knows what for, and he’d probably never be able to succeed as he could have elsewhere. 

Humans were so foolish.  He was looking a gift horse in the mouth, and decided to knock it’s teeth in.  He sighs deeply, crushing the bottle in his hands, the glass shards littering the roof.

“Oh well..  There are always other worlds.” He says, vanishing into thin air.


End file.
